Hi this is Tutor P and this is Music Lyrics Explained 16. All right.
Tonight's the first one we're going to do with Elvis and of course, the title of the
song is "Are You Lonesome Tonight. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. Now a
classic Elvis Presley song. He recorded this song after finishing his military
service in 1960 and his manager advised him against it because he thought it
wasn't his style. But it ended up becoming such a big hit even Elvis
himself wasn't that sure if he could do the song justice. If he thought he could
do it right, but to be honest , this song has been recorded a number of times.
It was originally written in I think 1926 by some vaudeville actors and a lot
of people have sang it, but probably the one that everybody always remembers is
probably Elvis. So he must have done it justice because that's the one that
everybody remembers. If somebody says who sang are you lonesome tonight everybody
will think about Elvis. They'll remember the Elvis version. Oh , so again . Let's,
let's get on with it. Just like usual , you know, I'll sing and
read the words and then I'll explain any vocabulary that needs to be explained. So
let's just start. This is how it begins. Are you lonesome tonight ? Do you miss me tonight ?
Are you sorry , we drifted apart ? All right. So let's look at that. Well first
lonesome . Lonesome of course means that somebody's unhappy because they're
lonely nobody's with them. Or especially in this case because he's you know,
missing his previous love. His , his girlfriend. So he's feeling even more
lonesome. So are you lonesome tonight ?do you miss me ? Because I guess he's
thinking about her and he's , I guess he's wondering if she is thinking about him,
To feel sad about someone because they are not with you. So do you miss me
tonight ? Are you sorry we drifted apart ? So are you sorry I mean
do you regret this ? That we drifted apart. To gradually become more separated more
and more separated from somebody that you used to be very close to. You could
slowly drift apart. So this could be with you know, lovers or this this could even
just be with regular friends. They could drift apart as well. So are you sorry we
drifted a part ? And then it goes on. Does your memory stray to a brighter
summer day, when I kissed you and called you sweetheart. All right . Let's go over
that. So does your memory stray ? All light. here if we say stray. If your mind or
memories stray you do not concentrate on a particular subject. So your mind is
kind of wandering going somewhere. But start thinking or looking at other
things. So your mind could be straying . So, so again . Let's go over this again. Does your
memory stray to a brighter summer day, when I kissed you and called you
sweetheart ? Okay. So you know, sweetheart is a term of
endearment . Just like you know , sweetheart, sugar, honey, you know something that you
might call your girlfriend or your wife. Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty
and bare ? Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there ? Is your heart
filled with pain ? Shall I come back again. ? Tell me dear are you lonesome tonight ?
Let me go over some of this . Do the chairs in your parlor. All right. Parlor here
basically means like a a room in a house used for entertaining guests. Okay.
Do , do they seem empty and bare ? So this goes along with the feeling of being
very lonely of course. Maybe nobody visiting you. Nobody with you. Empty bare,
bare here always means containing nothing . Having nothing.
So are you lonely too ? Basically he's thinking about her . He's seeing it . Do you
gaze at your doorstep and picture me there ? All right. Remember, if we say to gaze, to look at
someone or something for a long time. It's kind of a dreamy stare. We always
say that we we stare , we gaze at stars. Like the real stars in the sky. Like wow !
You could gaze at movie stars. Like ah so it's always kind of a dreamy stare.
Because they are attractive or interesting. Then we say you gaze at
someone . Right here maybe kind of in a dreamy thing. Just hoping maybe if your
love will return. So that what he's asking her that question. Do you gaze at
your doorstep ? Your doorstep means a small step outside the main door of a
house. That's what we mean That's the doorstep. Do you yeah do you gaze at your
doorstep and picture me there ? Well picture, It means to imagine to imagine. So imagine
in your mind. Do you see an image of me in your mind ? Okay. Is your heart filled with
pain ? Shall I come back again ? So you know, well do you feel pain . Should I return ?
He's kind of asking you that. Tell me dear. Are you lonesome tonight?
Okay . So this is the main part that he's actually singing in the song and then
after that, you know, that then is another like humming instrument part.
And then it goes into a part where he does mostly talking . And he does it very
slowly goes. Yeah. I'll try to do it . I know if I come close to anything close
to an Elvis voice . But I wonder if you're lonesome tonight , you know, someone said
that the world's a stage, and each must play a part.
All right . Yeah this this is not just someone . This is Shakespeare. This is a
line from Shakespeare. Yeah if we say all the world's a stage. It's definitely
Shakespeare, meaning all the world is like a show and you know in our human
life it's almost like we're playing actors . Even in our real life. And all
humans are actors playing their roles. So that's that's what that means. So he
actually says that. Remember this was originally written by Vaudeville actors. You
know , so they were there on stage all the time . So maybe they think , they really
relate to that. Okay. Anyway, so that's basically what he says here. So I
wonder if you're lonesome tonight and you know, and and you know someone said
the world's the world's a stage and each must play a part. Yeah just like well
directly from Shakespeare. Fate had me playing in love, in love with you
basically. As my sweetheart. You know, that's the way says it. So fate of course
if we say fate things that happen to one So meaning it was just fate that you
know I ended up you know we ended up together as lovers . Fate had won playing
and loved you with you as my sweetheart. Act one. So again. It's it's almost
like it's a play. Act one was when we met. I loved you at first glance. All right. So
again like your, your, your, your whole love experience was almost like a
play. Okay in love, as my sweetheart. You read your line so cleverly and never
missed a cue. Meaning so just like we're playing parts again. So you said
your line so cleverly. In a very clever way , smart, funny way. And never missed a
cue. Cue yeah this is a word that we use like with actors. Something that an actor
does or says as a signal to another actor . So sometimes actors will give
themselves a cue. It's probably especially to help remember lines or to
do something. Okay. You read your line so cleverly and never miss the cue then
came act two. You seemed to change and you acted strange. So yeah. So of course
maybe you know their love is starting to fade or fall apart. And why I'll never
know. Honey you lied when you said you loved
me and I had no cause to doubt you, but I'd rather go on hearing your lies than
to go on living without you. All right . So that's part of the song. mmm I don't know
if I completely agree with that, but it is part of the song is very romantic of
course he can do it in a very romantic way. So let's go on. Then go on living
without you. Now the stage is bare and I'm standing there.
Okay. So then so again it's like life is a stage. You're acting. The stage is bare
means nobody's on the stage is bare containing nothing again. And I'm
standing there with emptiness all around. And if you won't come back to me . Then
they can bring the curtains down. Like the end of the play you know, they can
bring the curtains down. All right. I guess he means the show is over or I
hope it doesn't mean that he might kill himself. It sounds a little bit like that but
anyway . But still this was a very romantic song . Everybody always remembers
it and then he goes back into the singing right at the end of the song.
Again so is your heart filled with pain ? Shall I come back again ? Tell me dear , are
you lonesome tonight ?
Okay. Anyway it's a very classic love song. I hope you got it. hope you enjoyed
it . Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.